Chapter 72 Gabriel's Revelation (Gabriel POV)
Edmund's command center was in the administrative building, three hundred meters from the underground facility where his trap was drowning my sister and fifty-five other wolves.
I'd spent two years tracking hunter networks, documenting their operations, learning their tactics. Two years preparing for the moment when I'd finally confront the man who murdered our mother and spent eighteen years torturing Vivienne.
Tonight was that moment.
"Thomas, Rachel… you're with me," I said to my two most experienced survivors. "Everyone else maintains defensive positions at the facility. We're going after Edmund."
"That's suicide," Thomas said flatly. "Edmund's command center will be heavily guarded. We'll be walking into a fortified position."
"I know."
"And you're going anyway."
"He's my father. This is personal."
Rachel checked her appropriated silver weapons… two knives and a handgun she'd taken from a fallen hunter. "Personal doesn't mean smart. But I get it. Let's go kill your genocidal dad."
We moved through Blackthorn Academy's grounds with practiced stealth. The Silver Moon illuminated everything in blood-red light, making shadows deep and movement obvious. Campus was eerily empty… human students had evacuated hours ago at Vivienne's warning, leaving only hunters and werewolves engaged in their lethal dance.
The administrative building was dark except for the third floor corner office… Edmund's temporary command center, chosen specifically because it offered clear sight lines to the underground facility and multiple escape routes.
"Two guards at the main entrance," Thomas whispered from his position scouting ahead. "Four more on the stairwell. Unknown number inside the actual office."
"We go through them," I said.
"Obviously. I was just providing tactical assessment."
We hit the entrance guards before they could raise alarm… Thomas taking one, Rachel the other, both hunters down within seconds. Not dead, just unconscious. We weren't here to massacre Edmund's people. Just to reach him.
The stairwell guards were more alert. They saw us coming, raised weapons, started shouting into radios.
I shifted to wolf form mid-run, used Silver Moon-enhanced speed to cover the distance before they could fire. Hit the first guard hard enough to send him crashing through the stairwell railing. He fell one floor, landed badly, didn't get up.
Rachel tackled the second guard, disarming him with moves she'd learned from two years of fighting hunters who'd tried to kill her pack. The guard tried to resist… she punched him hard enough that he stopped trying.
Thomas handled the third and fourth guards with brutal efficiency, his usual calm demeanor replaced by cold focus that came from watching hunters kill people he cared about.
We reached the third floor.
Edmund's office door was reinforced steel with electronic locks and probably at least three hunters inside as personal security.
I didn't bother with subtlety. Just shifted to human form, kicked the door with Silver Moon-amplified strength that bent metal and shattered the lock mechanism.
The door flew open.
Four hunters inside… all of them raising weapons, all of them professionals trained to kill werewolves.
But I recognized one of them.
Daniel Morgan. Welsh hunter who'd killed three members of Rowan's pack seven years ago. I'd seen his photo in the evidence we'd compiled, matched his face to security footage from multiple attacks.
And he recognized me.
"You're Edmund's son," Morgan said, his weapon aimed at my chest but his expression showing confusion. "The older one. Gabriel. We thought you died in the attack that killed your mother."
"I survived." I let my voice carry all the rage I'd been suppressing for two years. "Watched my father murder my mother while she was trying to protect Vivienne. Spent five years believing his lies about werewolves being monsters. Then I transformed and realized everything he'd taught me was wrong."
"Edmund said you'd been corrupted. That the werewolf infection destroyed who you really were."
"Edmund's a liar. And you're a murderer. Rowan ap Rhys lost three pack members because of you. Bronwyn was sixteen years old. You shot her while she was in human form, begging you to stop."
Morgan's weapon wavered slightly. "She was a werewolf. A threat to… "
"She was a child!" I shifted to wolf form, faster than Morgan could track. Hit him before he could fire, both of us crashing into Edmund's desk.
The other three hunters opened fire.
Thomas and Rachel engaged them immediately… Rachel taking two with coordinated strikes that disarmed and disabled, Thomas handling the third with efficient violence that came from extensive combat experience.
I focused on Morgan.
We fought across the office… him with silver weapons, me with claws and teeth and two years of rage fueling every attack. He was trained, experienced, professional.
I was faster. Stronger. Angrier.
Hit him hard enough to send him through the office window. Glass shattered. He fell three stories to the ground below, landing in a way that suggested broken bones but not immediate death.
Good. He could face trial for murdering Bronwyn and the others. Death was too easy an escape.
The office was clear now… Thomas and Rachel had subdued the other three hunters, all of them restrained with their own zip ties.
And sitting in the corner, watching everything with hollow eyes, was Edmund Ashford.
My father.
I shifted to human form, standing blood-covered in the wreckage of his command center. The Silver Moon shone through the broken window, illuminating both of us in crimson light.
He looked older than I remembered. Grayer. More tired. Like the eighteen years of hunting werewolves had worn him down to something fragile despite his professional competence.
"Gabriel," he said quietly. "You've grown."
"Five years will do that."
"You look like your mother."
"Don't." I took a step closer. "Don't talk about her like you cared. You murdered her. Shot her while she was transforming to protect Vivienne from your fear."
"She was attacking… "
"She was PROTECTING!" I shouted, my control finally breaking. "Lyanna Silvermane was the most powerful werewolf in Britain and she used that power to make sure her newborn daughter survived the transformation! She was shielding Vivienne from the silver in your weapons! And you shot her because you didn't understand what you were seeing!"
Edmund's face crumpled. "I thought... she was trying to kill Vivienne. I thought I was saving my daughter."
"You weren't. And then you spent eighteen years torturing Vivienne to 'protect' her from becoming what Mom was. Silver injections. Magical suppression. Isolation. You destroyed her childhood because you couldn't accept that werewolves are people."
"I did what I thought was right."
"You did what was easy!" I moved closer, my rage making the air around me shimmer with supernatural energy. "You could've researched. Could've learned about werewolf biology. Could've asked questions instead of making assumptions. But that would've required admitting you murdered Mom for no reason. So instead you built a career on killing werewolves to make her death meaningful."
Edmund stood slowly, his movements careful like he expected me to attack. "What do you want, Gabriel? Why are you here?"
"To stop you. To save Vivienne and the other wolves you're trying to murder tonight." I gestured toward the window overlooking the facility grounds. "Your trap failed. The UV system's disabled. The wolves are evacuating. Your genocide attempt is over."
"There are contingencies. Secondary protocols. Even if… "
"I know about the silver water flooding. I know about the sealed exits. I know about all of it because I've spent two years documenting your operations." I pulled out my phone, showed him the encrypted files. "Everything. Your entire network. Three continents worth of hunter organizations coordinating werewolf elimination. The government funding. The international cooperation. All of it documented and ready to be released publicly."
Edmund's face went pale. "You can't. The backlash would… "
"Would expose you as the monster you really are. Would show the world that werewolves are people being systematically murdered by government-funded hunters. Would destroy your career and put you in prison for crimes against humanity."
"Gabriel, please… "
"Don't beg. You don't get to beg." I took another step closer, close enough now that I could see the tears on his face. "You took everything from me. My mother. My childhood. Five years of my life spent believing I was a monster because that's what you taught me. Then another two years surviving while you tried to hunt down every werewolf in Britain including your own children."
I shifted to wolf form.
Edmund pulled a weapon… compact pistol with silver rounds, probably his backup of a backup because hunters always had multiple backups.
He aimed at my head.
Didn't fire.
"I can't," he whispered. "You're my son. I can't… "
I shifted back to human. "But you could kill Mom. Could torture Vivienne for eighteen years. Could build this facility specifically to drown fifty-six werewolves. Where was your conscience then?"
"They were threats. You were... you are my children."
"We're werewolves. According to your ideology, that makes us threats too." I watched him struggle with the contradiction, watched him try to reconcile loving his children with hating what they'd become. "You can't have it both ways, Dad. Either werewolves are people… including me and Vivienne… or we're all monsters you should be killing without hesitation. Which is it?"
Edmund's hand shook. The weapon wavered. "I don't know. I don't know anymore."
"Then figure it out. Because right now, I have every advantage. I'm faster, stronger, and I have two years of combat experience fighting hunters who've tried to kill me. I could tear you apart before you finished pulling that trigger."
"Then do it." Edmund's voice was hollow. "End this. Kill me like you've clearly been planning. I'm tired, Gabriel. I'm so tired of fighting. Of failing. Of watching everything I've built fall apart."
I looked at my father… the man who'd raised me. The man who'd also murdered my mother, tortured my sister, and tried to commit genocide.
He was broken. Defeated. Already destroyed by his own choices.
Killing him would be easy. Would be justified. Would be exactly what two years of rage demanded.
But it would also make me exactly what he feared werewolves were… monsters who solved problems through violence, who killed without mercy, who put revenge over humanity.
"No," I said finally. "I'm not killing you."
Edmund looked shocked. "Why not?"
"Because you took everything from me… my mother, my innocence, my sense of safety… but I won't let you take my humanity too. I won't become the monster you think werewolves are just to satisfy your expectation." I shifted back to wolf form, then immediately back to human to prove I had perfect control. "I'm a werewolf. I'm also Gabriel Ashford, your son who still remembers when you were a good father. Both things are true. And I'm choosing to be the person who walks away instead of the person who commits patricide."
"You're leaving me alive." Edmund seemed unable to process this. "After everything I've done."
"I'm leaving you devastated. Which is worse."
I walked toward the door, stepping over unconscious hunters.
"Gabriel!" Edmund's voice stopped me. "I'm sorry. For what it's worth. I'm sorry."
I looked back at him. At the broken man who'd once been my father.
"It's not worth much," I said. "But I hope someday it might be worth something. Work on that while you're in prison. Figure out how to be the person who deserves forgiveness even if you never get it."
Then I left him there… alive, arrested, and facing the consequences of eighteen years of choices made from fear instead of love.
"That took strength," Rachel said quietly. "Walking away instead of killing him. Not sure I could've done the same."
"I'm not sure I did the right thing," I admitted. "Part of me wanted to tear him apart. Still wants to."
"But you didn't. That's what matters."